is badly weakened... >> narrator: an economy in collapse. >> greed and irresponsibility on the part of some... >> narrator: he kept saying the problems were big enough, and his win historic enough, that everyone in washington would join together to fix the country. >> he spoke of no less than remaking america... >> he got to washington and he became president, i think, still clinging to this view that the polarization in american politics could be overcome. >> this is the biggest inaugural of all time... >> you're going to be hearing a lot of superlatives today, but i think it is almost impossible to be too hyperbolic... >> narrator: to the new president, it seemed like an historic opportunity. >> president obama did not have a full sense of what washington was going to be like for him. he had not been in the middle of these kind of do and dirty a fights, the ugly reality of governing in washington today. >> the president walked into the presidency with an expectation that he wod be able to reach across the aisle, that republicans and democrats alike would be willing to come to the